• Clive Palmer has thrown a tantrum on the lawn of Parliament House and stormed out of Jacqui Lambie’s attempt at the Ice Bucket Challenge;

• Emma Watson has lashed out at critics of the celebrities involved in the nude photo scandal;

• Justin Bieber has been arrested again, this time for colliding with a mini-van being driven by paparazzi.

LIVE UPDATES

9:53am

“If I wanted to, I could take Kiev in two weeks.”

That statement has been attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to La Repubblica, he said it during a phone call with a European official, Jose Manuel Barroso. Russia has not denied it, but has attacked Barroso for leaking quotes from the conversation.

“Whether these words were said or not, in my viewpoint, the quote given is taken out of context, and it had an absolutely different meaning,” said an aid at the Kremlin.

Peng Shuai has become just the third Chinese tennis player to reach the semi-finals of a grand slam by beating Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-1 at the US Open.

This is Peng’s 37th grand slam — she hadn’t even made the quarter-finals before — so obviously she’s excited.

“I love tennis, I love to play, but it’s a long time, the career. It’s tough,” she said after her victory overnight.

“Sometimes I’ve thought to give up and stop playing because I don’t know if I can make it or not.

“My coach and my parents always told me to fight and not give up.”

Peng Shuai of China celebrates.Source:AFP

9:27am

Coles has confirmed it will cut 378 permanent and 60 contract positions in its Melbourne store support centre as part of a restructure. The supermarket chain says the move will lead to a “leaner store support centre” and enable increased investment across its network.

There will be 160 “redeployment opportunities” across the business, and Coles says it will be working with affected staff who may wish to transition into those roles.

“The team members affected by this decision have made a significant contribution to Coles and we sincerely thank them for their hard work,” Coles managing director John Durkan said in a statement.

Coles is cutting jobs in Melbourne.Source:Supplied

9:14am

Chris Brown has pleaded guilty to misdemeanour assault after hitting a man outside a hotel in Washington DC. He’s been sentenced to time served, having spent two days in jail already.

At the time of his Washington arrest, Brown was on probation for attacking pop star Rihanna. As a result, the outcome of this case could have repercussions in California.

Shaw “humbly and sincerely” apologised when he returned to parliament on Tuesday after an 11-day suspension for misusing his taxpayer-funded vehicle and fuel card. He told the parliament he took full responsibility for breaching the code of conduct.

“I understand that this matter has been a distraction for which I am sincerely sorry,” he said.

Shaw’s return meant he regained the balance of power in the chamber. Opposition leader Daniel Andrews has previously called for the Independent MP’s expulsion.

Frankston MP Geoff Shaw.Source:News Corp Australia

8:56am

A 23-year-old West Australian man accused of reckless driving in Indonesia has converted to Islam while living in prison.

Jake Drage was speeding when his motorbike collided with another on June 30, killing a local mother. He could spend up to six years in jail, if found guilty.

“His family, in this case his mother, hasn’t made a big deal of Jake becoming a Muslim,” Hartono said. “What matters most is that he’s healthy, he’s fine and he’s on the right path.”

Jake Drage appears in court.Source:AP

8:44am

The Australian cricket team bounced back from its shock loss to Zimbabwe with an impressive 62-run win over South Africa overnight.

Australia batted first and set an imposing target of 288, then bowled the Proteas out for 220. Mitchell Marsh spearheaded the victory, scoring 86 runs from 51 balls and taking two wickets.

8:31am

A flight alert is still in place over Iceland, with fresh eruptions from the country’s largest volcano sending 60-metre jets of lava into the air.

The Bardarbunga volcano system has been rocked by hundreds of tremors on a daily basis since mid-August, prompting fears that the volcano could explode.

Fountains of lava spurt from a fissure in the Bardarbunga volcano.Source:AP

8:23am

An unprecedented analysis of waste water has exposed an alarmingly high rate of use for the drug ice in Victoria, the Herald Sun reports.

Testing at one sewage treatment plant in Melbourne showed that one hit of methamphetamine had been consumed for every 20 people. And more shocking details about the use of ice are expected to be revealed in a parliamentary report today.

The car pick-up service Uber has been banned across Germany because it doesn’t have the proper legal permits, the BBC reports.

The company could be fined if it continues to operate, but a spokesman has said it will not comply with the suspension while it appeals the ban in court.

“Germany is one of the fastest growing markets for Uber in Europe,” the spokesman said. “You cannot put the brakes on progress. Uber will continue its operations and will offer UberPop ridesharing services via its app throughout Germany.”

“After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the internet,” the company said in a statement.

“None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone. We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved.”

Shriver recently revealed she had started dating ABC news analyst Matthew Dowd, but the Post’s sources claim they are “longtime lovers”.

“Maria likes to make it appear that she’s the victim, but she’s not,” one source said. “The (idea) that they started dating recently is ridiculous.”

In May of 2011, Schwarzenegger publicly admitted to bedding housekeeper Mildred Beana years earlier and fathering her son, who is now 16. According to the Post’s story, Shriver and Dowd first got together in 2006.

Maria Shriver, right, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.Source:AP

7:31am

Australia’s male basketball team has beaten its archrival, Lithuania, 82-75 at the FIBA World Cup. The one committed basketball fan in our office tells me that’s a really big deal.

The upset victory has a bunch of complicated ramifications, but if everything else goes to plan, it should set up a quarter-final showdown with the United States.

7:18am

The conflict in Ukraine has driven more than half a million people from their homes, according to the UNHCR. The agency is counting 260,000 people who have been displaced within Ukraine, and another 260,000 who have sought asylum in Russia.

“If this crisis is not quickly stopped, it will have not only devastating humanitarian consequences, but it also has the potential to destabilise the whole region,” UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

“After the lessons of the Balkans, it is hard to believe a conflict of these proportions could unfold on the European continent.”

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres.Source:News Limited

7:05am

Madonna’s lyrics are becoming less subtle with each passing year. According to The Sun, a new single from the pop star entitled “Unapologetic B***h” slams her 26-year-old ex-boyfriend, Brahim Zaibat.

The missionary group Serving In Mission said the unnamed doctor had been treating women in the obstetrics ward of a hospital in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. The group doesn’t know how the doctor contracted the virus, since the ward is separate from the area where Ebola patients are being treated.

Last month two Americans were evacuated to the United States for treatment after contracting Ebola in Liberia. They received an experimental drug known as ZMapp and recovered, but the manufacturer says it has run out of the drug and it will take months to produce more.

Dr Kent Brantly was cured of the Ebola virus after contracting it in Liberia.Source:AFP

6:40am

Surprise! Justin Bieber has been arrested again. This time his quad bike collided with a mini-van that was being driven by paparazzi.

According to TMZ, there was also a physical altercation between Bieber and the car’s driver, a photographer.

“Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez’s peaceful retreat in Stratford this weekend was unfortunately disrupted by the unwelcome presence of paparazzi. This has regrettably resulted in charges of dangerous driving and assault,” Bieber’s attorney, Brian Greenspan, told E! News in a statement.

The pop star will attend court on September 29.

Oh Justin, not again.Source:Getty Images

6:28am

Remember our story on the “outback tornado selfie” that seemed a little too epic to be true? We labelled it a “big, fat fake” at the time, and now it has been revealed that the clip was a marketing stunt for the cinematic release of the film Into the Storm.

The video, which you can watch below, showed a man running towards a tornado in the outback so he could take a selfie with it. It’s completely fake, but it’s also hilarious.

THE TORNADO SELFIE HOAX

Palmer joined a crew from The Project last night as they prepared to film Senator Lambie, but when they were about to cross to the studio, he walked out of the shot and upturned one of the ice buckets.

When he was asked about the incident by the Telegraph, Palmer was rather blunt: “I just don’t like the ice bucket challenge. It’s my business, see you later.”

Jacqui Lambie took the Ice Bucket Challenge on the lawn of Parliament House.Source:News Corp Australia

6:10am

British actress Emma Watson has lashed out at critics of the celebrities involved in the nude photo scandal.

“Even worse than seeing women’s privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy,” Watson said on Twitter.

Many people, including celebrities such as Ricky Gervais, have made comments condemning Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and the other hacking victims for taking naked selfies in the first place. Watson believes they’re missing the point.

Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.

Footage of the murder, found online, shows Mr Sotloff dressed in orange and kneeling in a desert landscape. A masked militant, apparently the same man who killed James Foley last month, condemns the ongoing US strikes against IS before cutting Mr Sotloff’s throat.

US intelligence officials are currently trying to confirm the authenticity of the video, which is entitled “A second message to America”. British Prime Minister David Cameron has denounced the murder as an “absolutely disgusting, despicable act”.

A still from the video reportedly shows American journalist James Foley.Source:AP

Another still shows the IS militant.Source:AFP

6:00am

Hello, and welcome to our morning news coverage. We’ll be bringing you the morning’s biggest stories so you can get across the news quickly.